Attorney Ron Hoffman (right) is pictured in this 2011 file photo as he listens as Justice Robert Clifford sentences his client, Richard Moulton, to 40 years in prison at Oxford County District Court.

By Judy Meyer, Sun Journal

Posted June 30, 2012, at 1:36 p.m.

WILTON, Maine — Defense attorney Ron Hoffman, who lives in Sumner and practices law in Rumford, has been charged with two counts of misdemeanor terrorizing in connection with bomb threats called into the Cushing School and Academy Hill School in Wilton last March.

According to a press release from Wilton Police Chief Heidi Wilcox, the staff at the respective Wilton schools received the calls the morning of March 29, forcing the evacuation of 363 students, 146 of whom were between the ages of 3 and 7.

According to a Sun Journal report of the incident at the time, students at Academy Hill were transported to Cascade Brook School in Farmington while children at Cushing School were taken to Mallett School in Farmington where they remained for the remainder of that school day.

The bomb threats were made before 9:30 a.m. by someone using a blocked phone number. The incident prompted the schools to adopt a new policy not to accept any more blocked calls. If a caller blocks their phone number, a school employee will pick up the phone and immediately hang up.

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Hoffman, 52, was admitted to the Maine Bar in 1997 after graduating from the Massachusetts School of Law. In addition to the Maine bar, he is a member of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Bars, and is currently licensed to represent clients in federal court cases in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Hoffman has represented a number of high profile defendants over the years, including quadruple murderer Christian Nielsen of Newry in 2007. Last year, Hoffman represented Richard A. Moulton Jr., who is currently serving 40 years in prison for his role in the 2009 murders of Victor Reed Sheldon and Roger Leroy Day Jr. in Rumford and, in 2006, represented sex offender Steven Morton, who was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison for raping and assaulting a toddler in 2005.

Hoffman is the sole practitioner at his Congress Street law firm.

The Major Crimes Division of the Maine State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted the Wilton Police Department in this investigation; the case will be prosecuted by the Somerset County District Attorney’s Office.

If convicted, Hoffman races up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine on each charge.